FairAndUNbalanced.com

 
From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

This could look like a situation to play solely for laughs, if we forgot that thousands of migrant children are held in US custody, and the head of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen can’t say how many people have died in DHS custody, even though she should have intuited that this was sort of question she might have been asked in the wake of the death of a seven-year old girl, Jaklin Caal Maquin. The “wall” has become such an item of importance to DHS that they’ve lost their articles over it, because we needs wall, precious, and filthy libses thwarts us!

I have half a notion that if this wears on, instead of caving, Schumer and Pelosi should actually put DACA back on the table. Just give him the original $1.6 billion he originally rejected because he got his ass reddened by the RW talkers, and make a demand regarding how he even gets that much out of Dems. Because Trump’s cards are all on the table. He wants his wall funding and he needs it to make his base happy. (His “art of the deal” is so terribly naked and on display here.)

Dems don’t love a shutdown, but it might be really nice to see Trump’s “My way or the highway” attitude get greeted with “Eat asphalt”.

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From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

A few days ago, in a meeting with Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump threatened to shut down the government if they didn’t give him money to build a wall on our southern border. He went even further, and said he would take full responsibility for the shutdown, and would not blame Democrats. It seems that was just another of his many lies.

He followed through on his threat to shut down the government when Congress refused to give him $5 billion for the wall. But he now doesn’t want to accept the responsibility for his actions. Instead of accepting responsibility for his shutdown of the government, he is now trying to shift the blame onto Democrats — exactly what he said he wouldn’t do.

It’s not working though.

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• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from CNN as my President’s parallel reality collapses into itself each time it stumbles into legal forums. Apparently fantasy tweets don’t carry much weight in courtrooms.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit reads the Judge’s courtroom scolding of Michael Flynn and finds it remarkable that the right abandons law-and-order rhetoric as soon as one of their own is at the defendant’s table. I have my own thoughts about General Flynn as compared to another military hero who affected American history in a dark way.
   
• As Ted McLaughlin reports at jobsanger, my President reveals by tweet that over 19,000 text messages were purposely and illegally deleted by FBI anti-Trump partisans who were once part of the Mueller investigation team. Pretty serious. Just one detail turns out to be wrong with the story.
   
• After watching the recent televised meeting in which Nancy Pelosi participated, North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz is inspired to celebrate “the near infinite chain of strong, intelligent, capable women, having to effort to be heard above the hissing, frantic noise of an insecure, less qualified man in her midst, so desperate to silence her.”
   
• Andy Borowitz reports the dire warnings of the Trump cabinet that, if our President goes through with his threatened shut down, it will make it much harder to steal from the government.
   
• One of the best minds on the net, Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged, untwists and presents the substantial part of Trump world that is on the shady side of the law. Her talent for clever phrasing makes this sad tale entertaining.
   
• Advertisers are fleeing from Tucker Carlson after particularly vehement anti-immigrant characterizations. Fox News denounces censorship by leftists. At The Moderate Voice David Robertson explains to Fox News what is and what is not censorship.
   
• Glenn Geist, residing at MadMikesAmerica, goes farther, taking apart Tucker bigotry, then continuing on to demolish Fox News.
   
• The ability to straighten an insanely complex issue and endow it with the virtue of clarity is an art to be valued. I always look forward to reading any article, paragraph, or sentence written by nojo. At Stinque, nojo takes on the recent convoluted, weird decision outlawing Obamacare. nojo educates us to laugh like hell at the legal logic and be scared as hell at the possible effects.
   
• Dave Dubya continues his account of debates with my long time friend, conservative T. Paine. Dave does not directly editorialize, instead letting the online record speak for itself. Entertaining.
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara argues that the conservative resolve to fight against a war on Christmas and liberal embrace of multiculturalism are both un-American.
   
• At The Onion, America’s panicked, blood-covered citizens are demanding just one goddamn second to think.
   
• John Scalzi at Whatever has a weird dream that is interrupted one night and is inspired to make a contribution. OH, and it’s mostly told in tweets.
   
• The Journal of Improbable Research tells us about a nurse in Salt Lake City leading an initiative to comfort families of patients who have died. She preserves for them an EKG strip of the final heartbeats.
   
• Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes rants against our human embrace of the single pernicious development that began our separation from true natural health: the chair.
   

 
From Jonathan Bernstein:

President Donald Trump’s border wall died yet another death on Tuesday, as the White House retreated from last week’s boasts about shutting down the government over it. Realistically, the wall has been dead for months, and perhaps since last year; Trump’s renewed bluster served only to demonstrate how weak he is, and to weaken him further for the next round of bargaining. Who’s going to believe him after so many empty threats?

The wall, in fact, offers a good example of why Trump just isn’t very good at presidenting

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From Max’s Dad:

God I need an escape from the deterioration of this entire nation. Its too goddamned much. I feel like pulling the covers up over my head and waiting for this putrid group of miscreants to go away. In the meantime, lets go to the movies.

The Mule

Clint Eastwood is really old. But Clint Eastwood is still relevant. The 88 year old directs like he doesnt have much time left. Its like a one take and I havent got time for a second. Who can forget the doll baby Bradley Cooper had to shake around to make it look alive in the horrific American Sniper?

The Mule is story of an old man, a neglectful old man who spent his whole life drinking with his buddies, growing his flowers and having nothing to do with his wife and kids. And the family hates him for it. He’s alone, he’s rejected, and he’s miserable. He’s also out of money due to the “damn internet” putting his flower business under water.

In a completely implausible scene he is offered a chance to make a lot of money just driving around. He bites. The next thing you know he’s running drugs for the cartel in his old pickup, then his new pickup. He finances his granddaughters wedding, he saves his old VFW hall, he saves his broken down home from foreclosure. He’s living high.

But then comes Bradley Cooper and Michael Pena. Working for the DEA, the two agents are after this so called Mule. They get closer and closer and the Mule begins to feel the heat.

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From Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post:

Santa had it relatively much easier this year: he was able to determine exactly who would be given his “Donald of the Year Award” for this year of 2018 much earlier than normal, and with very little hesitation or indecision. Long time readers of this blog are familiar with this holiday award, which Santa gives each December to the one organization, group, or person whose statements or actions were so boneheaded, preposterous, and insane that they were more than deserving of ridicule.

Past recipients have included:
2017 – Presi-dunce Donald Chump
2016 – President-elect Donald Chump
2015 – presidential candidate Donald Chump
2014 – TIED – self-proclaimed killer of Osama bin Laden Robert James O’Neill and President Barack Obama
2013 – the obstructionist 113th Congress
2012 – Ex-Hostess Brands CEO Gregory J. Rayburn and his executive board
2011 – the entire Republican congressional caucus
2010 – the obnoxious Phillips “Colon Lady”
2009 – Richard Heinke, the idiot who faked sending his little boy up in a hot-air balloon just for publicity
2008 – disgraced former Democratic IL Governor Rod Blagojevich

As mentioned, this year it was all clear as a bell to Santa. He didn’t even have to designate who came close to receiving the award, because no one came within a light-year of the winner. But – to keep up with tradition, Santa DID finally note some distant also-rans…

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From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

Who’s counting, you ask?

Wired Magazine has created a handy cut-out-and-keep guide to all 17 (Known) Trump and Russia Investigations! It would be wrong to just republish their work, but I think listing the investigators and saying most of ’em have multiple investigations going on is fair play! It’s a good read!

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From Green Eagle:

In a an effort to help make the Trump administration a success, Green Eagle wishes to make the following proposal.

Why can’t we build the wall out of coal? This will allow Trump to keep his promise, and at the same time he will keep another promise by giving years of work to coal miners, digging up enough coal for a two thousand mile long, thirty foot high wall of coal. This is an eminently practical suggestion, as shown in the following photo from 1907…

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From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:

According to a new report by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the number of abortions in Wisconsin increased by 3.7 percent in 2017 over the previous year’s total.

Heather Weininger, Executive Director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said the increase is not a surprise.

“After a brand-new, state-of-the-art abortion clinic opened in Milwaukee’s trendy Third Ward we should have all been on high alert that abortions were soon to be on the upward climb,” Weininger said in a statement Thursday.

Weininger said that despite the complaints by Planned Parenthood, access to abortion is not being restricted.

“For too many years, Planned Parenthood was seeing a decline in their revenue and they were ready at every turn to reverse the downturn in profits,” Weininger said. “For years we have heard Planned Parenthood saying the pro-life movement is limiting access to abortion. It looks like the abortion industry has gotten what it wanted: More unborn babies being murdered, and more women who will suffer the devastating consequences of abortion.”

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